Palestine: IOA starts building road in village, 440 injured in 1 week of protests, appeals for saving the life of captive & arrests

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– The Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) start on Saturday building a new highway cutting through Beit Safafa village at the outskirts of occupied Jerusalem.

The road leads to Jewish settlements established on occupied Bethlehem land and on completion would allow settlers to directly head to the coastal region without being hindered by traffic lights or crossroads.

The road would serve Jewish settlers at the expense of the 10,000 inhabitants of the village.

RAMALLAH, (PIC)– At least 440 Palestinians were injured in the West Bank in violent clashes with Israeli forces during protests held in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jail, the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA) said in a new weekly report.

The report, which covered some of the Israeli violations against the Palestinians from 19 to 25 February, added that these clashes escalated following the death, on 23 February, of the Palestinian detainee Arafat Jaradat in Megiddo Prison.

His death angered the Palestinians whose protests were responded to by Israeli soldiers with tear gas canisters, rubber-coated metal bullets and live ammunition, the report said.

Over half of those injured were treated for tear gas inhalation, and one third for injuries sustained from rubber-coated metal bullets, while 16 Palestinians sustained injuries from live ammunition and the remaining from other means, according to the report.

In the gravest incident, a 16-year-old boy from Ayda refugee camp was seriously injured in the head by live ammunition fired by Israeli troops.

The report also pointed to the remarks made lately by the special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, saying that he called on Israel to fully respect the human rights of all Palestinian detainees and prisoners in its jails.

OCHA quoted him as saying that “those held in administrative detention should be charged and face trial with judicial guarantees in accordance with international standards, or promptly released.”

“He also stated that the United Nations expects the autopsy to be followed by an independent and transparent investigation into the circumstances of Mr. Jaradat’s death, the results of which should be made public as soon as possible,” it added.

Its report also covered in detail the settler-related incidents, saying that at least 28 Palestinians were injured and different kinds of their property were destroyed in settlers’ attacks during the reporting week.

The prisoners demanded, in a letter they sent to Wa’ed Society for Prisoners and Ex-detainees, all the international, human rights and humanitarian institutions to immediately intervene to release captive Maysara who suffers from serious illnesses, such as throat cancer.

They asserted that, at any moment, he might meet the same fate of captive Arafat Jaradat, who had recently died in jail.

There are nearly 4700 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails; hundreds of them suffer from serious and chronic diseases. There are 150 patient captives who need to undergo urgent surgeries.

The Israeli occupation authorities refused to release Abu Hamdiya after the doctors proved that he suffers from cancer, which led to the deterioration of his health condition, as part of the policy of medical neglect in the Israeli jails.

Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) said in a statement on Saturday that the prisoner Abu Hamdiya had been transferred more than once to Soroka hospital, adding that he suffers from high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels.

Abu Hamdiya was arrested 11 years ago and Ofer military court sentenced him to life imprisonment on charges of resisting the occupation.

He had been earlier arrested four times in the sixties because of being active in the ranks of Fatah movement. He was also one of the deportees to Jordan in 1978.

His sister I’tidal Abu Hamdiya said that her brother returned to his homeland in 1998, but the IOA re-arrested him in 2002.

Captive Abu Hamdiya has been deprived of family visits. However, he keeps up high spirits and a strong will in spite of his health condition and the illnesses he suffers from.

I’tidal Abu Hamdiya appealed to local and international human rights and humanitarian organizations to intervene in order to release her brother due to his health status, as well as the bad detention conditions.

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IOA prosecutes a boy from Jenin and erects checkpoints

JENIN, (PIC)– Israeli military court in Salem camp, northern Jenin, postponed the trial of a Palestinian boy from the town of Rummaneh, western Jenin, and refused to release him.

Zuhair Rashid Ahmad, 17, was arrested by Israeli soldiers on 15/2/2013 after an Israeli military jeep had deliberately run over him.

The court insisted on accusing the Palestinian boy of participating in the demonstration that took place at the Jalama checkpoint.

Meanwhile, the Israeli forces have erected, since the early morning hours Saturday, a military checkpoint at the entrance to the town of Ya’bad south of Jenin, and started confiscating vehicles, abusing the citizens and preventing them from heading to their work places.